Baccarat Betting Systems

The game of Baccarat has one of the lowest house edges of all casino card games, at around 1.2%. It’s also mostly a game of luck and pure odds, although knowing the odds can help your game overall. Here, we’ll go over a few of the more common strategies and betting systems. You can decide for yourself which of these systems would be beneficial to your Baccarat game.

Martingale

Martingale is one of the oldest betting systems, and has been in use for over 300 years. It’s based on mathematical odds and is very simple. Basically, decide for yourself what your standard bet will be. When you win, you will make the same bet on the next hand. When you lose, you double your bet. The idea here is that even if you lose several times in a row, the next time you win (because you are doubling your bet each time), it will recoup the losses. The reasoning here is that eventually, you’ll win a hand, so the larger bet will offset any previous losses.

For example, let’s say that your base bet is $5 for each hand. If you lose four times in a row, you will have lost $75. You’ll bet $80 on your next hand. If you win, you are now ahead $5. This system works well in theory, but is usually limited by two things: the size of your bankroll, and the betting limit at the table. Because of these two considerations, the Martingale system really works best for short term play.

Labouchere

This system is also known as the “cancellation” system. The first thing you will do is come up with a series of numbers. For simplicity’s sake, let’s say your sequence is as follows: 1-2-3-4-5. These numbers represent the amounts of your bet. For your first bet, you will add the first and last number in your sequence and bet that amount (in this case, 1+5 = 6). If you win that hand, you will cross 1 and 5 off your list. Your chain is now 2-3-4. If you lose, add another number to the sequence. Your chain is now 1-2-3-4-5-6.

Keep playing until you win enough hands to cross off all the numbers in your sequence, and you will come out ahead. Of course, the caveat here is that you could be adding quite a few numbers to your sequence, so you want to be sure your bankroll is large enough to cover that contingency. You also want to choose numbers that will not exceed the table limit. If you are new to this system, you will probably want to practice with this at home, playing online, where you can take your time and figure things out until this becomes second nature. You will also want to stick with smaller bets so your risk is minimized.

D’Alembert

This betting system is similar to the Martingale system in that you increase your bet after losing one hand. However, instead of doubling the bet, you increase it by an increment of one. In addition, when you win one hand, you decrease the next bet. This system is mostly about playing it safe – minimizing losses while protecting any winnings.

This system was developed in the 18th century by Jean le Rond D’Alembert, a French mathematician and physicist. His reasoning was that “nature seeks equilibrium,” or in other words, the odds eventually even out. However, the one flaw in this system is that each hand is independent from the previous hand, so there is no actual “equilibrium” to match.

Conclusion

For basically as long as there have been casinos and casino games, there have been systems and strategies developed to try let the player get an edge on the house. You may have some short term luck with any of these systems, but ultimately, the house always wins. Try to remember that, and always play responsibly.